scholarly journals Impact of the “First Wave” of the Pandemic on Social Rights in the Countries of the European Union

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-144
Author(s):  
Mariya G. Bistrina ◽  
Thomas Thomov
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Preventive Health Care ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Social

While news of successful vaccine trials is encouraging, the prospect of long-term restrictions underscores the magnitude of a number of problems and challenges faced by all EU member states during the first wave of coronavirus infection. European leaders have come together in a series of measures and policies to support the European economy and society at the time of the declaration of the emergency. This situation underlines the particular importance of respecting the social rights of citizens. Social rights offer protection in many of the areas that most define our daily lives, including legally binding standards in education, employment and health care. This gives EU citizens the right to education, fair working conditions and access to preventive health care. The article traces the practice of how European countries apply the lessons learned from the first wave in order to minimize the negative impact on human rights. Several European governments have decided to expand income support schemes. To date, the authorities have expanded access to testing for COVID-19 in nursing homes, migration camps and other institutions. The authors highlight how the pandemic has affected fundamental rights, especially the social rights of society as a whole. The article describes some of the measures that EU member states have taken to protect the most vulnerable segment of society as Europe faces the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Political aspects of security of the European Union Member States

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-105
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Kusztykiewicz-Fedurek
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Political Security ◽  
New Institutions ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
The Eu

Political security is very often considered through the prism of individual states. In the scholar literature in-depth analyses of this kind of security are rarely encountered in the context of international entities that these countries integrate. The purpose of this article is to draw attention to key aspects of political security in the European Union (EU) Member States. The EU as a supranational organisation, gathering Member States first, ensures the stability of the EU as a whole, and secondly, it ensures that Member States respect common values and principles. Additionally, the EU institutions focus on ensuring the proper functioning of the Eurozone (also called officially “euro area” in EU regulations). Actions that may have a negative impact on the level of the EU’s political security include the boycott of establishing new institutions conducive to the peaceful coexistence and development of states. These threats seem to have a significant impact on the situation in the EU in the face of the proposed (and not accepted by Member States not belonging to the Eurogroup) Eurozone reforms concerning, inter alia, appointment of the Minister of Economy and Finance and the creation of a new institution - the European Monetary Fund.

European Union Rights and Values in Human Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 16-51
Author(s):  
Anniek de Ruijter
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
European Union ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Eu Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Eu

This book looks at the impact of the expanding power of the EU in terms of fundamental rights and values. The current chapter lays down the framework for this analysis. Law did not always have a central role to play in the context of medicine and health. The role of law grew after the Second Word War and the Nuremberg Doctors Trials (1947), in which preventing the repetition of atrocities that were committed in the name of medicine became a guidepost for future law regarding patients’ rights and bioethics. In the period after the War, across the EU Member States, health law developed as a legal discipline in which a balance was struck in medicine and public health between law, bioethics, and fundamental rights. The role of EU fundamental rights protections in the context of public health and health care developed in relation with the growth of multilevel governance and litigation (national, international, Council of Europe, and European Union). For the analysis here, this chapter develops an EU rights and values framework that goes beyond the strictly legal and allows for a ‘normative language’ that takes into consideration fundamental rights as an expression of important shared values in the context of the European Union. The perspective of EU fundamental rights and values can demonstrate possible tensions caused by EU health policy: implications in terms of fundamental rights can show how highly sensitive national policy issues may be affected by the Member States’ participation in EU policymaking activities.

Two Charters and a Pillar

2020 ◽  
pp. 191-202
Author(s):  
Bruno de Witte
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Lisbon Treaty ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights

This chapter retraces the post-enlargement trajectory of the protection of fundamental social rights in Europe. The chapter selects three years that signpost this trajectory: 2000, when the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights was adopted, with the inclusion of a social rights chapter; 2009, when the Lisbon Treaty seemed to contain a renewed promise of social progress in the Union; and 2017, when the European Union launched a European Pillar of Social Rights, as part of an effort to revitalize the social protection agenda of the European Union after the disappointing post-Lisbon years.

Fundamental Rights and the United Nations Financial Sanction Regime: The Kadi and Yusuf Judgments of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 753-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIELLE BULTERMAN
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Reasoning ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Community Regulation ◽  
Court Of First Instance ◽  
Right Of Access

Under the UN sanctions regime of Resolution 1267, UN member states are obliged to freeze the assets of persons and entities which are associated with Usama bin Laden, and which therefore reason have been listed by the UN. Within the European Union this ‘UN sanctions list’ is implemented by means of a Community regulation, having direct effect in all EU member states. The regulation was challenged by several individuals and an organization, which were added to the UN sanctions list on the basis of their association with al Qaeda. The regulation was challenged on two grounds. First, the applicants claimed that the Community did not have the competence to adopt the contested regulation. In the second place, the applicants claimed that the Community regulation infringed their human rights (right to property, right of access to court). Thus the CFI was asked to determine to what extent it is competent indirectly to review measures adopted under the UN Charter. This delicate legal question is answered in a lengthy judgment, the legal reasoning of which is not always convincing.

If You Are Not Part of the Solution, You Are the Problem: Article 37 of the EU Charter as a Defence for Climate Change and Environmental Measures in Investor-State Arbitrations – Joint 2nd Prize Winner Essay competition 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-295
Author(s):  
Florence Humblet ◽  
Kabir Duggal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
International Investment ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Environmental Measures ◽  
The Eu

Climate change is severely impacting the survival of humankind on earth. In the European Union (EU), the Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU Charter) codifies environmental protection as part of the EU’s corpus of fundamental rights protection and states that “a high level of environmental protection and the improvement of the quality of the environment must be integrated into the policies of the EU and ensured in accordance with the principle of sustainable development”. By virtue of this article, the EU has elevated environmental protection to the level of constitutionality. Environmental concerns have played a critical role in investor-state arbitration. This article submits that Article 37 of the EU Charter might be a viable defence for Member States of the EU (Member States) that adopt climate change and environmental measures. Such defence would not consist of a jurisdictional challenge based on the Achmea decision but of a defence based on the applicable law which protects the notion of sustainable investment enshrined in the applicable international investment agreement. Article 37 of the EU Charter could, therefore, operate a powerful tool to foster environmental protection in investor-state disputes and, therefore, address one of the most widespread complaints in the backlash against investor-state arbitration.

scholarly journals Contradictions in Frontex Operations: the Push-back

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 85-92
Author(s):  
Gábor Kemény ◽  
Michal Vít
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Organisational Structure ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

The aim of the paper is to introduce the legal misfits between the standards of human rights as stated by the European Union and the Council of Europe and practical day to day experience related to EU member states. For this purpose, the article focuses on political and legal assessment of the so-called pushbacks at the Greek-Turkish external border and introduces the influencing factors, such as the various interpretation of the legislation, differences in the organisational structure and values. Authors concluded that these factors are endangering the fulfilment of the fundamental rights and the efficiency of the border protection thus the security of the EU and its member states.

The Legal Abyss of Discretion in the Resettlement of Refugees

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-85
Author(s):  
Tom de Boer ◽  
Marjoleine Zieck
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Common European Asylum System ◽  
International Refugee Law

Abstract The world is experiencing its largest refugee crisis since the Second World War, and more than ever before, the lack of an equitable burden-sharing mechanism is making itself felt: the world’s poorest States are hosting most of the refugees. The durable solution of resettlement of refugees is, in theory, the principal means of securing responsibility sharing within the framework of international refugee law. In practice, this cannot be realized since fewer than 1 per cent of the world’s refugees can be resettled annually due to the small number of available resettlement places. However, initiatives are being developed to increase the number of States that offer resettlement places to refugees and hence the number of available resettlement places. Europe, too, traditionally lagging well behind in terms of the number of resettlement places it offers, is endeavouring to contribute more places. It must nonetheless be noted that Europe’s increasing support for resettlement is paired with a policy of extraterritorialization of asylum claims and minimization of ‘spontaneous’ refugee arrivals. If Europe indeed aims to replace the regular asylum system with controlled refugee resettlement, this will raise issues of access to asylum. While the current Common European Asylum System contains a plethora of procedural and substantive rights for asylum seekers, resettlement – due to its essentially discretionary nature – appears to take place in a legal void, that is, it appears to suffer from arbitrariness in the selection of refugees and a lack of procedural rights and legal remedies for the refugees involved in the resettlement process. The question is whether this is also the case with the European Union (EU) resettlement proposals and, if so, whether this can be sustained from a legal point of view. This article reviews these proposals, along with the current practice of refugee selection by EU Member States, and analyses them from a refugee rights perspective. It examines whether EU initiatives affect the discretionary nature of resettlement, and specifically analyses whether the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union apply to the resettlement procedures of EU Member States and, if so, what rights could be invoked by the refugees involved under those instruments.

EU accession - chance for gender equality in CEE countries

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 468-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daša Šašić Šilović
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
And Gender

Does accession to the European Union offer a chance to promote equality between men and women in societies in transition? What challenges does this process raise and how are they to be addressed? What is the role of trade unions and other social actors? The article attempts to open up a debate on these issues and to provide a positive matrix for influencing the empowerment of women and gender equality in the course of the accession procedure. Gender inequalities, it is pointed out, are not specific to applicant countries, but exist in most EU Member States. This offers an opportunity to initiate political, economic and social measures relating to gender equality throughout Europe, and to create an environment conducive to sustainable human development. Unfortunately, cases of positive social action are rare and gender issues are taken for granted, rendered invisible by neutral legislation and partial measures, and marginalised. The activities of trade unions in CEECs provide examples of such problems. Therefore, political action, the sharing of information, knowledge and lessons learned, as well as concerted action between trade unions from EU Member States and those in CEEC have the potential to radically change the map of gender inequalities to the benefit of all.

Fundamental Rights and the Transformation of Governance in the European Union

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 133-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier de Schutter
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Regulatory Competition ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Charter Of Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Eu

It has been argued in many places, and in different forms, that the establishment between the EU Member States of an internal market, and now of an area of freedom, security and justice, requires the European Union to legislate in the field of fundamental rights, either in order to avoid a form of regulatory competition between the Member States or in order to ensure mutual trust allowing for mutual cooperation between judicial, police and administrative national authorities. ‘Negative integration’, in the form of the lowering of barriers to the movement of goods, services, persons and capital, or in the form of mutual recognition of judicial decisions or exchange of information between national authorities, should thus be followed with, or compensated by, ‘positive integration’, in the form of the setting of common standards applicable throughout the EU Member States. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, moreover, provides the baseline from which to act, since it represents a set of values which all the Member States have agreed to consider as fundamental. The question (so it would seem) is now that of implementing the Charter, by using the legal bases provided for in the treaties to the fullest extent possible.

scholarly journals Comparative legal analysis of the Directive 2019/1152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union with the current labour law of all its Member States

2020 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 01005
Author(s):  
Volodymyr Bozhko ◽  
Inna Kulchii ◽  
Volodymyr Zadorozhnyy
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Council Directive ◽  
Labour Legislation

The article deals with the comparative legal research of the current labour legislation of each of the 28 EU member states with the Directive 2019/1152 of 20 June 2019 on transparent and predictable working conditions in the European Union. The relevance of the research topic is because after the adoption of Council Directive 91/533/EEC in the EU, a number of acts of primary and secondary legislation were adopted that significantly change the content and scope of labour rights of workers. These are, in particular, The Maastricht Treaty, The Treaty of Amsterdam, The Treaty of Nice and the Treaty of Lisbon. Furthermore, on December 7, 2000, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union was signed, and on December 17, 2017, The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission solemnly proclaimed the European Pillar of Social Rights. As a result, collisions arose between the above Acts and Directive 91/533/EEC, which required the adoption of a new Directive 2019/1152 and a comparative legal analysis of this Directive with the current labour legislation of each of the 28 EU member states.

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